


The Magic of Love

by platonic_boner



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Magic Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 07:58:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4911604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonic_boner/pseuds/platonic_boner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur repeals the ban on magic and expects Merlin's undying gratitude, but Merlin acts like nothing has changed. Clearly Arthur's only recourse is to annoy, bully, trick, and otherwise coerce Merlin into openly using sorcery.</p>
<p>Or: 5 times Arthur tries to trick Merlin into using magic, and 1 time Merlin’s magic does it for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Magic of Love

Arthur would like to say it's one of his first acts as king to repeal the law against magic. Merlin’s magic has been serving him faithfully (which Arthur has noticed, thank you very much, no matter how blind Merlin thinks he is) for so long that it’s the least he can do. Unfortunately, it takes much, much longer than hoped before he's worn down his advisors enough that they'll even consider it. Plus, keeping his efforts a secret from Merlin makes it that much more difficult and time-consuming. Arthur is confident, though, when he announces the lifting of the ban (almost a year into his reign), that it will be worth it - and that his manservant-slash-sorcerer will react to the surprise with boundless gratitude.

Predicting what Merlin will do is impossible, of course, but Arthur's amused himself for months picturing Merlin's possible reactions. As he lies in bed the day after his announcement, pretending to be asleep because Merlin will be here any moment now to wake him up (although Arthur could no more actually sleep than a child on Christmas Eve), he tries to guess which of the scenarios he's thought of will most resemble the truth.

Merlin didn't reveal himself with some spectacular display at the feast last night, as Arthur had thought he might, probably drunkenly - but no matter. Perhaps he'll be more subtle - start using magic to do his chores, and wait for Arthur to catch on? (Arthur has had a lot of practice ignoring Merlin's badly concealed sorcery, so he's sure it'll be easy to draw out the reveal like a parent playing hide-and-go-seek with a particularly young or dim-witted child.) No, probably Merlin will do something dramatic like try to force a hug on him. Which Arthur will obviously leap to avoid, because he has absolutely no desire to be that close to Merlin's tall, lean body or to bury his nose in Merlin's soft, dark hair or -

Aha! Footsteps! Arthur lets out a loud snore as Merlin enters his chambers.

Merlin throws open the curtains and exclaims, exactly as usual, "Rise and shine!" He merely ducks the goblet Arthur throws at him in response, exactly as usual. Arthur's breakfast is awaiting him, and Merlin dresses him, and awaits further orders, all as usual.

Arthur shrugs to himself, and they both go about their day as usual, albeit with Arthur paying much more attention to Merlin than he normally would. Merlin does all his chores without magic, doesn't defend himself from flying objects with magic, and looks at Lancelot with badly faked confusion when Lance says, "You must feel better today, Merlin!"

Basically, the day is very, unsatisfyingly, disappointingly normal.

Over his dinner, which has been fetched exactly as always except possibly, maybe, with a slightly bigger slice of cake than usual (no, Arthur is probably imagining things, and _anyways_ half an inch more cake is hardly enough of a thank you for freeing Merlin and his people - but Arthur is off topic), Arthur finally brings it up. "I suppose you heard about the announcement yesterday, then?"

"I was there, serving your wine, sire," Merlin replies, eyebrows raised as if in disbelief at Arthur's stupidity.

"What do you think?" Arthur asks.

"I'm sure you did what's best for the kingdom," Merlin replies, with a small, secret smile. "If that's all, sire?"

Arthur waves him away impatiently, and Merlin bows sarcastically on his way out of Arthur's chambers. Well. That was most unsatisfying. Arthur would even have preferred the hug to Merlin's complete _non_ -reaction.

Arthur has almost decided to call him back and accuse him of sorcery, but then he comes up with a much better plan. A much, _much_ better plan.

 

**Stage 1: Annoyance**

Arthur had always called Merlin useless, incompetent, cowardly, and awful at keeping secrets. The irony amused him, and so did the incredibly aggravated expressions that Merlin thought he couldn't see, and the muttered retorts Merlin thought he couldn't hear. Arthur had thought he'd have to stop those comments once he legalized magic.

But now that Merlin is refusing to admit to sorcery, there's no reason to stop annoying him.

Arthur thinks long and hard about the best way to pack the most ironic comments into a single day, and he is fairly sure that by the time Merlin has come to wake him, he’s accomplished it.

"Rise and shine!" Merlin exclaims, and Arthur sits up, stretches, and says, "It looks like a beautiful morning!"

"Are you still drunk?" Merlin asks suspiciously.

"Don't be ridiculous," Arthur says. "I'm just saying. The sun is shining! The birds are singing! It's beautiful."

"Indeed, sire," Merlin says kindly. "Perhaps you'd like to visit Gaius on this beautiful morning? Make sure nothing's-" he double-taps the side of his head with his fist - "going wrong?"

Arthur glares and throws a pillow at him, which Merlin catches and hurls back, because Merlin is an awful servant. He gets out of bed and dresses, and over breakfast he tells Merlin, "The anniversary of my coronation is in two weeks."

"Yes it is," Merlin agrees. He busies himself with straightening the bedclothes, back turned to Arthur, and mutters, "And it's a miracle Camelot is still standing."

Arthur ignores that, because his plan for the day will be ruined if Merlin is in the stocks.

"I've decided that at the celebration, we should have a bard singing of my accomplishments," Arthur continues. "Fetch me that man who's always singing in the market - he'll do. He and - and Geoffrey can come up with songs about me. Bring them to the council chambers - I'll meet them there."

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather go see Gaius?" Merlin asks, and has to duck the plate Arthur chucks at him on his way out the door.

 

Arthur passes Leon on the way to the council chambers and puts him in charge of the knights for the day. He then sits down at the round table between an unimpressed Geoffrey and Matthew the newly-appointed bard. Merlin is there to wait on them, bringing water and wine and fruit and sweets that he keeps eating himself.

"I think we should start with the time I vanquished the Great Dragon," Arthur says, and Merlin twitches.

An hour later, when Matthew sings Geoffrey's composition, Arthur tilts his head and strokes his chin thoughtfully. "Very nice," he says. "I sound valiant and courageous. But I think it needs something, perhaps a little ... comic relief?" He lets his eyes fall on Merlin and then widen. "Aha!" he shouts. "Put in Merlin, and how he spent the battle trying to run away but falling over, or something."

Geoffrey says, "Very well, sire," and Merlin twitches again.

 

At the end of the day, Matthew is hoarse, Geoffrey has made 37 separate complaints about the lack of words that rhyme with "Arthur", and Arthur has lost count of the number of times Merlin has twitched. Arthur finally releases Matthew and Geoffrey, and orders Merlin to come dress him for bed.

On the way up the stairs, Arthur is humming one of the songs, and Merlin is glaring fiercely.

"Very catchy, isn't it?" Arthur says, and then starts singing. "Merlin tripped over the grass, And fell - kerplunk - upon his ass!"

"You're an ass," Merlin snaps.

As Arthur gets into bed, he realizes that despite how much fun he just had, his plan hadn't succeeded. Merlin had listened to Arthur malign him and take credit for everything Merlin had done over the years, and he hadn't said a word.

Oh well. Arthur would just have to try a new tactic in the morning.

 

**Stage 2: Exhaustion**

"This morning," Arthur says through a mouthful of the breakfast Merlin has brought him, "you need to do my laundry."

"I just did it yest- _what happened_?" Merlin rushes to the overflowing basket of laundry in the corner of Arthur's chambers. "Arthur, this was _empty_ yesterday, and now you've spilled - oh, God, what am I touching? - all over it!!"

"Yes, well, I had a small accident," Arthur shrugs. It's true, if pouring oil all over one's entire wardrobe, and then rubbing some manure in, can be summed up by the term "small accident". Which Arthur says it can, and Arthur is the king.

"Also," Arthur continues, over Merlin's horrified spluttering, "Once you're done the laundry, you'll need to polish my armour as usual, and the floor in here needs to be washed. Oh, and don't forget to muck out the stables."

"Yes, _sire_ ," Merlin says.

"I'll have more jobs for you to do after lunch," Arthur adds, then hops up from his breakfast table and sweeps out the door before Merlin can protest and/or murder him.

 

This new tactic is simple. If he gives Merlin so much work that he can't possibly complete it without magic, Merlin will have to use magic. All Arthur has to do is catch him at it.

Does Arthur feel a little bad for making Merlin do this much work? Nope. Not even slightly. Because it could all have been avoided if Merlin had just told him he was a sorcerer.

Arthur pops in on Merlin three times over the course of the morning in various locations. Surprising him doing laundry fails, because Arthur bumps into a maid in the hallway just outside where Merlin is working. She apologizes profusely and loudly, even though it was completely his fault, and so Merlin has enough warning that by the time Arthur goes in, no magic is at work.

“You’ve done this quite fast,” Arthur comments, gesturing at the piles of clean laundry surrounding him as Merlin wrings out a last shirt.

“As if you’d know how long laundry takes,” Merlin says.

Arthur huffs, because he knows it takes longer than _this_ , and stomps off.

After a brief training session with the knights, Arthur sneaks up to his room to check on Merlin’s progress. A few servants give him judgmental glances for the way he’s tiptoeing through the halls in his own castle; Arthur pretends it doesn’t bother him.

He throws open the door to his chambers and immediately hears a huge clatter. He’s greeted with the sight of Merlin sprawled on the floor, apparently so startled by his entrance that he threw a mop across the room, upended a bucket of water, and dropped a cleaning rag onto his own head.

“Sire!” Merlin screeches, after removing the rag. “Was that really necessary?”

Arthur just closes the door in his face.

Arthur figures his best chance is catching Merlin in the stables. _Surely_ , no one who had the choice to vanish horse dung magically would do it by hand. Actually, having that thought, Arthur goes to the stables himself and hides all the pitchforks and shovels. If Merlin doesn’t want to use magic, he will have to _literally_ pick up manure by hand.

Arthur chuckles evilly, which makes the stableboys look at him judgmentally.

But when he bursts in on the stables later, he’s pretty sure one of the judgmental stableboys has warned Merlin or something, because Merlin’s busily scooping up poop with a shovel.

“You’ll be glad to hear that not only have I finished cleaning up your horse’s stall,” Merlin says, “But I also saved the kingdom from a mysterious case of disappearing stable tools.”

“Why would I care about your misadventures?” Arthur grumbles, and backs out of the stables.

At noon, Merlin happily serves Arthur lunch, and asks, “What else does your majesty require today?”

Arthur tells him he’s had enough of his incompetence and Merlin should take the rest of the day off. Merlin shrugs and says, “Perhaps I’ll see you when you come to visit Gaius?” He taps his head again, as if Arthur might have forgotten his previous insolence.

Arthur works out his frustrations on his knights for the entire afternoon. It doesn’t actually help, but it _does_ give him an idea for how to torture Merlin next.

  

**Interlude: Sole Mates**

Arthur wakes Merlin up by throwing a shoe at his head. (Arthur thinks it would've been more fun to yell in his ear, but Gaius is sleeping in the next room, and Arthur has respect for his elders. Also maybe fear.) Merlin shoots straight up, though, and his hands fly up as if to defend himself, and for a split second Arthur thinks _was it really this easy all along -_

But then Merlin’s wild (but still blue) eyes fall on him and then dart to the shoe and he just falls back into his bed with a groan.

“What time is it?” he whines into his pillow.

“Slightly before dawn,” Arthur says, stepping forward so he can grab the shoe he threw at Merlin from his servant’s bed. “Get up!”

“No,” Merlin says, and then - without moving his face from the pillow - grabs the shoe before Arthur can and covers it with his body to guard it from Arthur. “Also, no.”

“Merlin, I need my shoe back!”

“If you don’t have your shoe, _you_ can’t go anywhere, which means I don’t have to go anywhere,” Merlin reasons. “So, no.”

Arthur stands there for a few minutes trying to decide if he, Arthur Pendragon, King of Camelot, is _really_ going to tackle his manservant over a shoe. And then Merlin makes a noise which Arthur realizes is a _snore_ , because Merlin has _fallen asleep while holding Arthur's shoe hostage_ , and Arthur is not going to stand for this level of disrespect.

(Okay, maybe Arthur stands there for a moment, listening to Merlin’s slow breathing and shaking his head at Merlin’s sprawled limbs and feeling immeasurably fond. But _then_ …)

He lets out a war cry and leaps on Merlin. Merlin looses an unholy shriek and, still holding the shoe to his chest with one hand, punches Arthur in the face. Arthur roars and puts an elbow in Merlin’s stomach and shoves Merlin’s head and finally gets a hand on the shoe. They’re rolling around the bed battling for it when Arthur realizes they’re no longer alone and freezes.

He clears his throat. “Good morning, Gaius.”

“Good morning, your highness,” Gaius says, his eyebrows raised in judgement.

“I’m sorry to disturb you. Merlin was just giving me my shoe back,” Arthur says.

“No I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you _were_ ,” Arthur growls, tugging at it.

“No, I _wasn't_.” Merlin tugs back, and when it becomes clear that Arthur is stronger and will inevitably win this war, Merlin sinks his sharp little fingernails into Arthur’s hand.

Arthur does _not_ squeal, because kings don’t make ugly, high-pitched noises out of pain. He instinctively retaliates by slapping Merlin upside the head with his free hand. Merlin responds in kind. They are in a violent, one-handed slap fight when Gaius (whose absence Arthur hadn’t really noted) returns with a bucket of water that he upends over both their heads.

The coldness shocks them both into letting go of the shoe. Gaius demonstrates his wisdom by quickly scooping it up himself. Merlin and Arthur quickly disentangle themselves. Arthur sits up on one edge of the bed, and Merlin the other, as they dry off their faces, and the immaturity of what they have just been doing catches up with them.

“Are you done?” Gaius demands.

They both mumble agreement. Gaius returns Arthur’s shoe and then leaves, shaking his head. Arthur dumps the water out of his shoe and puts it back on, stands, and turns to Merlin.

Merlin grins at him and says, “That’ll teach you to throw shoes at me.”

Arthur puts him in a headlock and drags him out of the room.

 

**Stage 3: Bullying**

That afternoon, Arthur drags Merlin to the training field, gets them both practice swords, and then proceeds to beat on him. Most people think it’s because of the black eye that, according to rumour (and also, even if Arthur won’t admit it, actual fact), Merlin gave him. Arthur claims the reason he’s doing it is because Merlin keeps coming into battles with him, and he wants Merlin to have a chance at not dying, because it’s hard to find decent help these days. The real reason? _Eventually_ , Merlin is going to get angry, or his pride will kick in, or something, and he’ll lash out at Arthur with magic.

So Arthur swings his sword at Merlin’s torso again. Merlin just barely jumps away from it; three hours into this practice, and he’s moving very sluggishly indeed.

“Can we stop now?” Merlin whines.

“Is that how you’re going to defeat my enemies?” Arthur demands. “Complaining at them?”

“If complaining were lethal, you’d have killed me a thousand times over by now,” Merlin retorts.

Arthur lunges, sword headed straight for Merlin’s heart. Shockingly, Merlin manages to brush it aside in one of the first moves Arthur taught him today. Arthur is about to step back and praise him, but then Merlin uses his hesitation to swing his sword at Arthur’s head.

Arthur has to drop to the ground and roll to avoid a very nasty bruise.

Practicing beside them, Gwaine and Percival both pause and yell encouragement at Merlin.

“Good attack,” Percival says calmly.

“Off with the King’s head!” Gwaine yells.

Arthur gets up and faces Merlin menacingly. Merlin backs away, sword held up defensively.

“Please don’t kill me.”

Merlin actually manages to block three of Arthur’s blows before he falls on the ground, cowering. Percival comes over to save him. (Gwaine is being detained and interrogated by a few concerned guards.)

Merlin absolutely refuses to pick his practice sword back up. Arthur is disappointed in today’s lack of magical results, but on the bright side, Merlin’s swordsmanship has actually improved slightly.

 

**Stage 4: Trickery**

Arthur convinces his guards that despite Gwaine’s treasonous yelling, there’s no danger and no need to throw the knight in the dungeons. He then invites Gwaine to dinner.

Over their fourth glass of wine, Arthur confides his Merlin-related problem to Gwaine. Gwaine, he discovers, is equally frustrated at Merlin’s refusal to just admit he’s a sorcerer already.

“I don’t know _why_ he won’t tell me,” Arthur whines. “I wouldn’t have to behead him anymore!”

“It might be all the anti-magic speeches you’ve made,” Gwaine suggests. He says, in a poor imitation of Arthur’s voice, “All sorcerers are evil and mad with power, Merlin.”

“But I lifted the ban!”

“Also, it’s just awkward. What do you want him to say - hey, Arthur, guess who was illegally practicing sorcery in Camelot ever since you met him? Me!”

Arthur sighs. That’s probably it. Not owning up to sorcery because he’s too awkward to say anything? That’s Merlin’s level of incompetence, right there.

“What we need,” Gwaine says drunkenly (Arthur suspects he was pre-drinking), “is a _ruse_.”

“A ruse?” Arthur repeats.

Gwaine nods. “When does Merlin use magic? When he’s trying to save your sorry life. We just need to put your life in danger, and poof! Magic.”

“That’s a horrible idea,” Arthur says. “But it might just work.”

They clink their wine glasses together, and start planning their ruse.

 

Merlin is very vocal about his unhappiness at Arthur’s plan to travel alone through the Valley of Fallen Kings.

“Do you remember that time you nearly died there? Do you remember the time I nearly died there? What about the time we both nearly died there together?”

“It’ll be fine, Merlin, now pack up,” Arthur insists.

 

When the bandits rush down the hill towards them, Merlin shouts, “ _I told you so!_ ” just as Arthur realizes that this ruse is putting his and Merlin’s lives in very real jeopardy, he has no heir, and this was unbelievably stupid.

Fortunately, the bandits are unskilled, weak, and badly armed. Unfortunately, there are about a dozen of them. Arthur is pulled off his horse and he’s quickly completely surrounded by rusty swords. He manages to dodge a couple thrusts so two men impale their own comrades, but there’s still five men all simultaneously trying to kill him. He disarms a couple of them, knocks out a third, and is stabbing a fourth as Merlin yells, “Arthur!”

He watches as the last bandit thrusts his sword forwards in a move that will end Arthur, but then Merlin is there, skidding in between them and using the same block he’d used on Arthur in the training grounds. The bandit’s sword skitters away and Merlin slams the hilt of his sword into the bandit’s head, knocking him out.

He turns to Arthur. “Are you injured?”

“No,” Arthur says, and then checks. There’s actually a cut on his arm, but it’s not deep and it’s barely dripping blood. Merlin has a worse cut on his cheek, and they patch each other up and head back for Camelot.

(Arthur’s excuse for returning without completing their mission is that it’s too dangerous. Merlin spends the rest of the journey complaining that if Arthur ever listened to him, they could save so much time.)

Arthur is torn between being annoyed at the fact that his own teaching is what kept Merlin from having to use his magic, and proud at the swordsman Merlin apparently is. (Also, he’s rather relieved to be alive, and he’s going to yell at Gwaine for horrible judgement.)

 

**Stage 5: Drink up!**

Arthur’s newest plan isn’t really so much a plan as an excuse to get drunk. He’s going to simultaneously get Merlin drunk and see if Merlin’s any less cagey about his magic when completely intoxicated, but at this point he doesn’t really have much hope.

He invites a small group of knights to his chambers (Gwaine, Percival, Elyan) to get drunk. They all accept. He orders Merlin to attend and tells him they’re celebrating the fact that Merlin didn’t behead himself with a sword in the Valley.

(“I saved your _life_ , once again!” Merlin replies, outraged. “I’m not useless!”)

They all get drunk off of wine (Merlin hogs it), ale, and whatever strange moonshine Gwaine turned up with. Arthur tries to stay sober enough to interrogate Merlin, but then Percival starts a drinking game and that plan, like ALL Arthur’s plans, goes to hell.

It turns out Merlin isn’t a talkative drunk anyways. He starts out a bit combative and argumentative. Specifically, he picks a fight with Percival over the drinking game, because he feels that Percival, being at least three times his size, should have to drink at least three times as much.

And then, once he’s lost his argument and therefore gotten much drunker, Merlin gets quiet and sleepy. Arthur loses track of him around the time that Elyan tries Gwaine’s moonshine and then spits it into Percival’s face. When a cursory glance around the room doesn’t reveal him, and Merlin doesn’t show up again, Arthur supposes he’s gone off to bed. He shrugs it off and keeps drinking.

Before long, the rest of the knights decide to head off to bed as well (or, in Gwaine’s case, to the tavern). Arthur bids them a loud farewell, closes the door behind them, and goes to flop onto his bed.

Which is when he finds Merlin.

Merlin has tucked himself into Arthur’s bed. He’s cuddling Arthur’s favourite pillow, and has all the blankets snuggled around him. His head is barely poking out, which is why Arthur missed seeing him before.

Arthur sighs and climbs into the other side of the bed. He tries to steal one of his pillows back, but Merlin slaps his hand without waking. So Arthur uses his own arm as a pillow and goes to sleep beside his servant.

 

**Success at last**

Arthur wakes up slowly. He’s very comfortable, very warm, and very much spooning Merlin.

Er.

“Are you awake?” Arthur whispers, not sure what he wants the answer to be.

“Shhhhh,” Merlin says, soothingly patting the arm Arthur has wrapped around his waist. Then he appears to have the same moment of realization Arthur just had, given that he exclaims, “Wait, why are we spooning?”

Arthur could say, “Because you were hogging my pillows,” and then shove Merlin out of his bed and it would all be very THEM and everything would continue exactly as normal. But Arthur doesn’t want things to continue as normal, and this time, he isn’t referring to Merlin’s supposedly non-existent magic.

So instead he murmurs in Merlin’s ear, “Because it’s nice,” and pulls Merlin in closer.

Merlin pauses for a second, and Arthur hopes he hasn’t made a monumental mistake. But then Merlin rolls to face Arthur and says, “I can think of something nicer,” and leans in, slowly, and kisses him.

It IS a very nice kiss. Actually, who is Arthur kidding, it’s an earth-shattering kiss. He loses himself in it for what could possibly be a very long time. Then Merlin draws away, and kisses his cheek, and says “See?” and they both open their eyes and Arthur stares.

Merlin is _glowing_. His eyes are gold, yes, but also his entire body is shimmering with a soft golden glow. Also, there are roses - _roses_ \- growing out of the cracks in Arthur’s floor, and walls, and ceiling.

“Um,” Merlin says, looking around with big, startled eyes as his glow slowly faded. “You should probably know I’m a sorcerer?”


End file.
